The offer went out to Bardem last week around the same time the chatter for Tower heated up

Bardem could conceivably do both "The Dark Tower".and Bond depending upon scheduling.

With various studios fighting for the distribution rights to the next Bond film, MGM is reportedly trying to make use of that interest to get whichever studio is chosen to distribute the film to co-finance a number of films with MGM.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

On "Friday II", Fuller says they want to do a sequel "[Mark] Swift and [Damian] Shannon wrote a great script. We are ready to go, when New Line is ready. But as of yet, they are not ready" he says.

The "Freddy" his franchise might well be DEAD - "....as far as I know, there isn't even talk of writing another script."

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Friday remake and would like to see what Swift & Shannon have up their collective sleeves. As for Freddy his reboot was OK but not as good--Partly because original Krueger Robert Englund cast a pretty big shadow over the series that was hard to overcome; Freddy speaks whereas Jason does not....BIG difference

Cavill was invited for a callback in January, where he met Snyder face-to-face for the first time, according to a source.

The final decision came down last week, and the Nolan secrecy machine was in such force that only a handful of execs knew the choice. In fact, many top studio suits found out only after Cavill had been called Sunday morning.

Snyder:, “In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honored to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield."

New Line and Warner Bros. exorcism pic The Rite opened on the lower end of expectations, but still won the weekend box office race with an estimated gross of $15 million from 2,985 locations.

Across the board, movies were slowed down Friday by the another storm in the Northeast, but business rebounded nicely on Saturday. And while weekend revenues were down roughly 13% from 2010, that's a narrower decline than in other recent weekends.

Paramount and Spyglass' romantic comedy No Strings Attached held better than expected, coming in No. 2 and grossing an estimated $13.7 million from 3,022 theaters for a cume of $39.7 million in its first 10 days.

CBS Films' The Mechanic, the weekend's other new entry, all but tied with Sony holdover The Green Hornet for No. 3. According to early estimates, the two pics grossed an estimated $11.5 million. That pushes Hornet's domestic cume to $78.8 million in its third weekend.

Awards frontrunner The King's Speech continued to make box office headlines, grossing an estimated $11.1 million as it expanded to 2,553 theaters after picking up 12 Oscar nominations.

Speech -- for which Tom Hooper won the Director's Guild of America top award Saturday night -- has now jumped the $70 million mark domestically. Through Sunday, Speech's cume was $72.2 million. Business was up 39% from the previous weekend, thanks to more screens.

Speech, placing No. 5 for the weekend, wasn't the only film benefiting from an Oscar bump....

This past week the casting process for Gunslinger Roland Deschain for Ron Howard's "film trilogy and two TV season" adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" has proven to be quite interesting to watch First How we got to this point...

Mortensen just signed on to star in "Snow White And The Huntsman", effectively taking him off the list Shortly after that initial NY Post story, Deadline went further saying that Bardem isn't just in the running but has beaten out Bale and has been officially offered the lead role.

Howard plans to direct the initial film as well as the first TV season that will create a bridge to the second feature. If Bardem is cast, he’ll most likely appear in all three films and that first TV season.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sir Elton says that you shouldn't expect much gritty realism or exploration of his struggles with drugs, booze, weight and relationships. Rather the biopic " will be more of a fantasy, Moulin Rouge type of stuff. Obviously, it’s not going to be your normal, run-of-the-mill film. My life’s been so surreal, from buying a football club to God knows what."

He also says - "When I come offstage now I have a balance in my life. Until I found that in 1990, I came offstage and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Now I fly home every night after a show and I get back in my own bed. I have a wonderful partner in David, I have wonderful friends. I can remember things. I don’t take drugs anymore.”

The story follows an inventor of an organic cleaning product (Rogen) who invites his mother (Streisand) on a cross-country road trip to sell his product to marketing outlets. However they both have secret agendas. He plans to reunite her with a long lost love from her youth, she plans to help him overcome his fear of commitment.

Welcome to the debut of a new semi-regular feature here on TLR called Up And Down. Basically it's gonna be a post showcasing a few industry people places and things that deserve to be highlighted or indeed low lighted...And if any of you want to share something film related either good or bad that I have not covered yet or if you disagree with my picks Tell me in an email thelastreel@comcast.net

The film will follow a psychologist (Weaver) and her assistant whose study of paranormal activity leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic (DeNiro). The psychologist attempts to debunk the psychic’s work after he steps back into the limelight after 30 years.

“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet."-Welles

The Welles' estate is closer to a resolving an ownership dispute that has kept it out of theaters

The film began shooting in 1969.

Oscar winner John Huston stars as Jake Hannaford, an aging Hollywood director modeled after author Ernest Hemingway. The story uses Hannaford's 70th birthday party and conversations there as the central framing device for a non-linear narrative exploring his life.

Most of the film was shot in Peter Bogdanovich's own Beverly Hills house. Producer Jacqueline Boushehri, and co-star/co-writer/Welles’ former lover, Oja Kodar, are both now prepared to sell their interests in the film, giving hope it will see an eventual release.

Wait! Now it's Back Up This is only happening in three countries - Russia, Ukraine and South Korea. The decision was made based on market research results with issues of 'brand management and consumer awareness' listed as the official reason rather than cultural or political sentiment towards The USA

The suits were pleasantly surprised only those three countries will be affected. Whatever the global political sentiment about the U.S. is right now, the Captain America character has very strong brand name recognition in most international markets which override everything else. As a result the original title will be kept in all other markets.

Uniquely American Indeed!

The film is slated to be released throughout the world during the last two weeks of July and the first week of August.
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"One thing I can tell you about my next project is that I'm determined to do a future city film. I want it to be my homage to Blade Runner, even if it's a bit bigger, it will be a city based future film" The filmmaker is otherwise playing it close to the vest

"Mute" "is in a bit of a limbo actually. I've always loved the script and felt it was a film worth making, but it's a tricky one. It's a sci-fi film, and one of the drafts of the scripts got leaked a while back. The reaction was mixed. Most people didn't get the fact that yes it is sci-fi but it's a futurist film...that was the whole idea, to tell a film that can be based in any period, but just HAPPENS to take place in the future" says Jones.

He adds "People just say, why can't it be in a contemporary setting? But no, it's about mood and atmosphere as much as anything else. It's also quite dark so it's been a tough sell. Also, it's not a big film, it has been designed to be sort of a smaller and more independent film. Budget wise, it's in between Moon and Source Code"

Jones promises to "come back to it one day and hopefully it'll work the way I see it working."
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Up: Work has begun on a sequel to this year's action/comedy flick Red says Collider.

Friday, January 28, 2011

The source claims the Space Jockey, the big corpse seen in "Alien" who was the pilot of the ship carrying the xenomorph eggs, has been built at Pinewood Studios

Their source also says “Despite that press release that seemed to indicate there were no aliens in the movie, the familiar HR Giger-style aliens do appear. Big ones apparentlyThe main spaceship in the film will be piloted by an enormous head which I assume will be CGI. Yep, sounds weird but I assume some of the technology will be sort of biomechanical.”

The tipper also says that part of the film will be shot in Morocco - "I’ve heard that some sort of archaeological dig where they discover alien DNA takes place there and that DNA gives them the coordinates for an alien world. I’ve also heard Morocco is being used for alien planet landscapes so I’m not sure if it’s an archaeological dig on another planet."

The pic sure sounds like an"Alien" prequel to me. Unless of course it's a fake--or mabe the Prometheus story was put out to act as the misdirect..

Dame Judi Dench told the media via MI6 that she will be reprising the role of MI6 chief M forBond 23

She made the declaration following the South Bank Sky Arts Awards adding she couldn't reveal anything about the sequel-"My lips are sealed. I can’t tell you anything at all! But of course, I’m looking forward hugely to working with Daniel Craig again and with Sam Mendes who I’ve only ever worked with in the theater. So that’ll be all good fun to do! I’m so glad it’s coming back, it’s wonderful."

This film will be the seventh time Dench has played the part as 007's boss starting with 1995's "GoldenEye"

She's oozes authority in that role and makes the most of her screen time

Theater marquees will be crowded this weekend as commercial titles The Rite and The Mechanic enter the market and Oscar darlings The King's Speech and 127 Hours make major expansions.

Fox Searchlight is all but relaunching 127 Hours, which ups its theater count from 69 to 916.

New Line's The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins, should win the weekend and gross in the mid- to high teens. Playing in 2,985 theaters, the horror pic -- about a skeptical young priest who must perform an exorcism on Hopkins' character -- hopes to capitalize on the success of August release The Last Exorcism.

The Rite should play heavily to Catholic audiences, and especially Catholic Hispanics. Rite is tracking well among men and women over 25, but interest among younger females is softer than expected.

Lionsgate's From Prada to Nada, opening in only 256 theaters, will go after young Hispanic females. Loosely based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Prada is the first film from the Lionsgate-Televisa joint venture Pantelion Films.

Starring action favorite Jason Statham, CBS Films' The Mechanic opens in 2,700 theaters. The pic, which CBS Films is distributing for Avi Lerner's Nu Image/Millennium, is a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film of the same name.

Mechanic is leading The Rite in terms of interest among younger males and should gross in the high single digits or even low teens.

The Mechanic could find itself in a race for No. 2 with the Weinstein Co.'s King's Speech, which expands from 1,680 theaters into 2,553 on the heels of picking up 12 Oscar nominations. The film is already seeing a hearty boost from the noms, and it finished Wednesday with a domestic cume of $60 million.

Fox Searchlight waited until after the Oscar noms Tuesday to have another go with 127 Hours, which has underperformed at the box office since opening in early November. The James Franco drama, which earned six noms, has grossed $11.3 million....

Thursday, January 27, 2011

A sequel of sorts to last year's Valentine's Day the ensemble pic follows various characters preparing for the New Year holiday. The storylines will overlap and features major stars working at discount rates.

Brian De Palma. is set to direct the thriller "Passion," an English language remake of last year's French psychological thriller "Crime d'amour" (Love Crime) reports Variety.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier starred in the Alain Corneau.film about two feuding corporate execs, one of whom is driven to murder the other. The $30 million remake is a France-Germany-U.K.-Spain co-production and will be set in the UK.

“Not since ‘Dressed to Kill’ have I had a chance to combine eroticism, suspense, mystery and murder into one spellbinding cinematic experience.” De Palma told the trade.

"Cloverfield 2 will most likely not be the next movie because that's still in the really nascent stages. We haven't really had time to get together and talk about what that would be. That journey will probably be a bit longer, when we find that idea that we really get excited about. We're still hatching the story. It has yet to be hatched." says Reeves.

So if that's not happening soon what's next?

"I haven't decided what I'm doing next...I'm reading a lot and hopefully we'll be able to say what I'm doing within the next month or two. I really want to continue to press and try to make this smaller project that I've been trying to make since before Cloverfield. It's a project called The Invisible Woman It's sort of a character thriller. It's the anatomy of this woman's desperation. It's the same sort of storytelling that I did in Let Me In. It's an intimate character story, so I'm excited to do that to. Probably what I would do is find the next project and find a way to marry that schedule to the bigger project. So, hopefully, we could do two in a row and then maybe Cloverfield 2."

I still maintain that there should not be another Cloverfield pic. It would only serve to ruin what the first film established and is never gonna be surpassed. Hello Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 Please just let it go...

I think Stewart is solid as an actress and would put butts in the seats--But seems too young opposite Mortensen--Don't you?

Written by Evan Daugherty, this version of the classic fairy tale which expands the role of the Huntsman (Mortensen) in the fairy tale. Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender had previously been linked to the role.

When the evil queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron is currently in negotiations) orders him to take her stepdaughter Snow White into the woods and kill her, Huntsman Eric instead lets her go and becomes something of a mentor who teaches her how to fight and survive.

“While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative. I couldn’t be more pleased to have found the singular tale I’d been searching for, and finally return to this genre that’s so close to my heart.”

“It’s daring, visceral and hopefully, the last thing anyone expects. When I sat in a movie theater as a kid, feet raised off the floor for fear that something might grab my ankles, I never dreamed in my wildest imagination I would one day get to collaborate with the man responsible for it. Working alongside him has been nothing short of a dream come true.”

The pic is an adaptation of author/illustrator William Joyce's upcoming children's novel series "The Guardians of Childhood" which follows a group of heroic childhood legends, each with extraordinary abilities.

When Pitch (Law), an evil spirit akin to the boogeyman, lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world.

Pine will play Jack Frost, Jackman is Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny), Baldwin is North (Santa Claus) and Fisher is Tooth (the Tooth Fairy).

-Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo and Noah Segan have joined the cast of Rian Johnson's sci-fi action tale "Looper" says Variety. The story follows a group of killers who send bodies of their victims back in time. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano and Xu Qing are already set to star. Part of the film was to be set in France. This has now been changed to China with the film set in a world "sixty years from now [where] China is the leading super power and time travel has been invented." Johnson calls action from his own script. Shooting is now underway in New Orleans.

-Despite what the British tabloids say, Bond 23 isn't called "Red Sky At Night"

-Christian Bale says The Dark Knight Rises may not be his last Bat film but it depends on helmer Christopher Nolan Speaking to Empire: "All I know is the likelihood that this will be the last one. Well, I wouldn't say definitely. If Chris goes, 'Hey, I've got another story I think could be interesting,' then yeah, great, I'd go do that. I always assumed it would be three, but I could be wrong. I don't know if there's something wrong with me, but I don't feel any pressure"

-Collider says Actor-turned-hip-hop-star Drake is currently in talks to join writer/director Nicholas Jarecki ("The Outsider")'s financial thriller Arbitrage about a hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his shady trading empire before his fraud is revealed.

-Paddy Considine ("Hot Fuzz," "The Bourne Ultimatum") is hob-nobbing at the Sundance Film Festival this week promoting his directorial debut feature "Tyrannosaur". Yet he's already looking ahead and tells Total Film that his next project will be "The Leaning". The story follows a "young woman haunted by a childhood trauma who in adult life struggles to form meaningful relationships. Every time she gets close to somebody she feels this presence" says Considine.

-Nick Pustay will adapt Sophie Jordan's recently released young-adult fantasy novel Firelight says Heat Vision. The “Twilight with dragons” story follows Jacinda, a young girl who is a “draki,” a descendant of dragons who can morph into human form, and who is ordained to marry another of her kind. When the girl’s mother moves the family to live among humans for safety reasons, Jacinda puts her family at risk when she falls for a member of a secret dragon-hunting society.

-Out doing promotion for Friday's "The Mechanic", director Simon West has confirmed he's making plans to reunite with Nicolas Cage for a Con Air sequel. "I'd like to do... 'Con Air 2'" West tells Crave Online, "It'd be great. It's a matter of getting everybody together. There's so many people involved and it's about getting everybody to agree. But I'm going to bring it up to Nic. I'm going to put a bug in his ear about it. If the two of us want to do it, we'll go after the others."

-Sam Raimi's long-time producing partner Rob Tapert tells Freep.com that the long-gestating re-do of "Evil Dead" is still alive and that Raimi is still interested. "It's possible; we're looking at a script this month. What's interesting about 'Evil Dead' is very few people saw it in the format we made it for, which is for the theater. ... I think Sam wants to embrace the ultimate experience in gruelling terror and see it remade for a proper theatrical experience" the folks art STYD also adds that numerous writers and directors have taken meetings for the "Dead" remake with Ghost House Pictures over the years

Producer Harvey Weinstein is discussing an idea of a re-edit with director Tom Hooper taking the R-rated movie down to a PG-13 or even a PG.

The film earned the 'R' rating in the US for its occasional but essential use of swearing, more specifically the use of the F-word. Cutting around that would be extremely difficult and the swearing itself is a major component of the Colin Firth character's speech therapy.

Yet Weinstein is seeing the bigger awards bump that films like True Grit and The Fighter are getting at the box-office and wants some of that action as well

The move is part of a new marketing strategy intended to "up the film's appeal" to a broader range of moviegoers. The new rating would of course open the film up to the early-mid teenage demographic

But is that demo really wanting to see a witty yet dry British period drama about a royal leader's speech impediment. I say No they could care less.

Part of the reason for this sudden move is the UK box-office figures. The film has topped the British charts for three consecutive weekends with the help of a much milder 12-and-over rating.The UK Ratings System is much more forgiving when it comes to swearing

If plans move ahead, this new version of "The King's Speech" wouldn’t be completed until after the Oscars on February 27th. Before that the film is expanding to 2,500 theaters domestically this weekend, up from 1,680. Its ad campaign is also being adjusted to focus less on the critical acclaim and more on "trying to get across that this classic movie is just as cool as the other movies people are seeing" says Weinstein.

If Speech wins best pic over Social the re-edit won't matter much--As I said above TWC target demo of teens still would rather see a film about Facebook in the comfort of their own living room than see Speech

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

"The Defenders", the story of players of an MMORPG who are all drawn together for a real-life adventure, is still in scripting stages with Marti Noxon (the upcoming "Fright Night" remake) currently hashing it out Caruso says he won't be directing the film, but will be producing the film

And finally there's the long-gestating adaptation of the comic series Y: The Last Man. In the pipeline since mid-2007, Caruso says the project "is pretty much dead" as far as he's concerned. "I got where I did as far as I did with New Line and Warners.. It’s just, unfortunately, not going to work out" he adds.

Caruso does say that a sequel to "I Am Number Four", based on the second novel of the six book series called the Power of Six to be released on August 23, 2011 could get underway but it'll depend upon how the first goes at the box-office.